I spent President’s Day roaming around out in eastern Washington looking for possible camping sites. I am looking for a place where a couple hundred people could drive in and build a tent city, then spend a long weekend setting things on fire, running around in elaborate, provocative, or non-existent costumes, making loud noises at all hours of the day and night, dancing til dawn, and otherwise delighting each other with all the products of the artistic imagination without fear of upsetting the neighbors or attracting law-enforcement busybodies. This is a tall order, especially when you center the search space on Seattle and limit its radius to five hours’ drive.

I used to love poking around in the back country, but have fallen out of the habit. It was fun to just cruise around, looking down any road that interested me, getting out and hiking cross country when there was something interesting in the distance. I had specific destinations in mind, to be sure, located on aerial photos and BLM maps, but working out how the map corresponds to the territory is real work, and is definitely part of the fun.

Yesterday’s survey did not reveal a suitable place, but it was informative nonetheless. I was able to scratch one site off my list, determined that I need better maps if I am going to locate another, and unexpectedly came across a place which, while unsuitable for the event described above, is worth remembering in case I want to do something smaller and less pyrotechnically dangerous.